Kotlin and Ktor for Web Hosting

Kotlin has quickly become one of the go-to languages for both client and server-side apps due to its interoperability with Java, first-class language support, and additional type safety that does not exist within its realm. Many existing Java frameworks and libraries can easily be replaced with their Kotlin equivalent.

Ktor is a lightweight and modular web application framework written entirely in Kotlin that leverages its Coroutines and language constructs, making it easy to tailor to your project requirements. Furthermore, this multiplatform solution supports traditional servers as well as containers running AWS Lambda services.

At the core of ktor’s architecture lies its routing function, which makes extensive use of Kotlin’s asynchronous capabilities through Coroutines to allow non-blocking routes to be created easily while remaining asynchronously and non-blocking overall. Furthermore, this flexibility allows you to choose any logging, DI or templating engine without altering core code directly.

Another key feature of ktor is its support for OpenAPI, enabling you to quickly generate a Swagger UI from your API definitions. Simply create a Procfile at the root of your project; this file defines which process runs your API.

Once your code is ready to use, you can submit a request by either opening a browser and visiting your server’s URL or opening IntelliJ IDEA with its browser instance and using its HTTP Client to generate requests (place the caret in any module and begin typing “ktor-client”, followed by selecting Generate Request in the pop-up menu).